Pest Control in Phoenix, AZ

Why do roaches and ants show up in more numbers during monsoon season?

Monsoon rain drives insects out of wet ground and into dry buildings, and Phoenix pest companies report more calls for cockroaches and ants for exactly that reason. Monsoon season officially runs from June 15 to September 30, and the same rain also pushes scorpions out of hiding.

It sounds backwards in a desert, but it is the dryness that makes the rain a trigger. When storms soak the soil, whatever lives there looks for shelter that is not wet, and your house is the obvious one.

The practical point is timing. An exterior treatment that is fresh going into the monsoon gives insects a harder time getting in, and a technician who sees you in July will often be dealing with the consequences instead of preventing them.

What are the large roaches I find in my bathroom?

Large roaches in a Phoenix home are often American cockroaches, which live in sewers and enter homes through pipes. Monsoon season tends to increase sightings. They are not a sign of a dirty house, and treatment looks at drains and pipe openings as well as at the roach itself.

Seeing an American cockroach in a shower or near a floor drain usually means it came up the plumbing, not that it was living in your kitchen. A technician will check the places where pipes pass through walls and floors, because that is the route.

If roaches turn out to be a bigger, ongoing problem, the full approach is on the cockroach control page, where the work is quoted separately.

What does a Phoenix yard change about pest treatment?

Block walls, rock beds and irrigation boxes shape where the technician treats. Hollow-block walls and rock are named by Arizona sources as shelter for scorpions, and the base of the wall is also where many insects travel. A yard of gravel and granite still has pest pathways, just different ones.

A grass lawn invites one kind of treatment. A desert yard needs another: the wall line, the edges of rock beds, meter covers and the seams where the house meets the ground.

If your real concern is the walls and rock, the technician may suggest block wall and rock yard treatment as a dedicated visit rather than folding it into a general service.

• Walk the wall bases for webs, droppings and trails
• Check the lids of irrigation boxes and meter covers
• Look at door sweeps and the plumbing openings in the garage
• Note where the sprinklers wet the wall or foundation

When is general pest control not enough?

General pest control covers everyday crawling insects. It is not the right tool for termites, rodents, scorpions that are living in walls, or a bee swarm. A technician will tell you when a pest needs a specialist service, and each of those is quoted separately before any work begins.

Termites are the clearest example. Desert subterranean termites swarm July to September after monsoon rain, and dark western drywood termites swarm June to August on sunny days. A swarm of winged insects at your window is a call for an inspection, not a spray.

Rodents are another. The citrus belt around Arcadia and central Phoenix has roof rat pressure that needs exclusion work, and that belongs with roof rat control.